Page 36 of The Scarred Duchess Deal
He hated pacing but he could not seem to make himself stop. It had been only a little after lunch when Tessa had left to go and meet up with her brother. If it was, in fact, her brother. Perhaps all was well, and they were simply catching up, but his gut said otherwise. It told him that he only had himself to blame for her leaving. She might have very well written that note herself just so that she would have an excuse to leave him – to take the one maid that she had brought with them and move on to another life. She certainly had not been happy here.
It felt like such a crazy thing to think. It seemed and felt so wholly impossible. He shook his head as if that might somehow shake the very thoughts from his mind but it did not help. Pacing around an empty Manor full of worry was unlikely to help either. She had been so secretive about the location; she had been reluctant to read it. Certainly, he was overthinking things.
But what if I am not?
He could not delay a moment longer. The moon was starting to climb up into the sky he could not afford to waste another moment taking into account his own safety. He mounted the first horse that was ready and within reach and headed off in the direction of the wharf.
A freezing cold drizzle of rain threatened to slowly seep through his riding cloak if he did not find shelter soon, but he could not allow himself the time to think about such things. He checked each and every pier in turn until he came to a stretch of docks that seemed as if it had not been used in a very long time. The wood was in a state of disrepair and seemed to groan unhappily under his bulk, but there he saw it: soaked through and hardly more than a lump of cloth on the dock was Tessa’s shawl.
There was not a single clue to work with. There was no way to tell if the shawl had been dropped on purpose or by accident. There were still far too many unanswered questions. As much as he wished to do this alone, he would not be able to. If she had left him, he needed to find out where she went and what she was up to. If she had been kidnapped for some nefarious purpose, he would need to be in more than one place at a time and could cover more ground with help. Which meant that he was going to have to seek the assistance of his grandfather. It was not a prospect that he relished. They were not on the best of terms once again given the circumstances surrounding the marriage, but he did not have a choice.
Leo mounted his horse once more and set off at a gallop to return home. When he finally arrived, the rain had picked up and he was nearly soaked to the bone. He slid off his horse gracefully and stormed through the back entrance of his Manor. He left muddied footsteps in his wake as he peeled layers of clothing off to keep the chill from making him sick. He would change and he head for his grandfather’s the moment that the carriage was ready. He hurried to his room and changed quickly. He pulled on his thick cloak and grabbed a second warm one, draping it over his arm, for when he found Tessa. Jogging down the stairs, buttoning the buttons on his waistcoat, only to be interrupted by a frantic knocking on the front door.
“Who in the world–”
He almost ignored it. There was no time for callers at this time of night, but that was exactly the reason he answered the door. He felt himself pale as he looked into the frantic, scared eyes of none other than Mortimer Windrop.
Mortimer had changed drastically from the last time that Leo had seen him, but was still recognizable. He still had the same build, but was thinner. His skin was paler and bordered on waxy as it was stretched over his bones. Mortimer’s eyes seemed to have a permanent set of exhaustion rings purpling the skin there. Shaking from the cold and his clothes had clearly seen better days.
Leo swung his extra cloak around the shoulders of his friend without even thinking. Mortimer was out of breath but trying to say something as Leo helped him walk into the foyer of the Manor. Asking his friend where he had disappeared to seemed not nearly enough information. He did not even know where to begin with how many questions he had for this man.
“Whiskey! At once!” Leo called to a passing servant. It might not actually warm his friend, but it would help steady his nerves at the very least.
A glass was brought to them quickly and Mortimer coughed and sputtered after he swallowed it in one swift gulp. “They have her,” he explained as he regained his breath. It only lasted a moment before he started to cough again.
“Who has her?” Leo asked as he braced Mortimer upright with a hand flattened across Mortimer’s chest and back.
“It is all my fault… I never should have come back from Scotland–” He inhaled deeply before trying to expel as much information as humanly possible in one breath. “Johnny and the debt collectors… showed up in Scotland… was bad luck that they even found me. I have been saving up to pay everything back… I was almost done… but then they found me. Only a couple more months and I could have done it… put an end to all of this… but now they have her.”
A tear rolled down Mortimer’s cheek. Leo shifted his hold so that he was grasping Mortimer’s lapels in his first. “Johnny? Rotten Johnny has my wife?” Leo snarled. Everybody knew of the man’s reputation. He was about as sour a man as there ever was. His underhanded debt dealings were legendary. Everybody knew that only those truly desperate ever dealt with him. Mortimer must have been truly desperate. “If they have harmed her, I will make you wish you had died all of those years ago. Are we understood?”
Mortimer nodded. “I never wanted to hurt her… never. I love my sister more than my own life.”
“If it comes to that, I shall have no trouble trading you for her,” Leo warned viciously.
“I know! I know! I want to make this right. No matter what it costs. I have harmed my dear Tessy too much. I should have known my letter would be intercepted.” Mortimer hugged the cloak around him firmly.
“Yes! You should have!” Leo barked as he dragged Mortimer through the Manor and to his readied carriage. “We will deal with the hows and whys of it later. For now, we are going to find Rotten Johnny’s hideout. Immediately.”
ChapterEighteen
Aurelius was outside when they arrived. He stood in the shelter of the arched entryway to his home with his hands on his hips. In the background were five of his favorite cats. They did not ever seem to stray very few away from Aurelius. They were not quite brave enough to venture close to the door, given the thunder and rain, but they were watching all the same.
“How did you know that we were coming?” Leo asked as he exited the carriage.
“It was the cats! They always know when something is wrong. They have been pulling me from my bed for the better part of an hour now. I did not know what it was or why they were doing it at the time, but now I can see that it was for a good reason. Tell me, my boy, why have you come to fetch me in the middle of the night?” Aurelius was already fully dressed and seemed to be outfitted for an adventure.
“Tessa has been abducted. We have to get her back, but we are too few in number,” Leo explained.
“Oh dear, then we must hurry! But, who is we?” Aurelius said happily. His mood was not at all reflective of the serious situation that they found themselves in currently. Aurelius left the door open behind him as he walked to the carriage and leaned round to look inside, where he spotted Mortimer. “Ah… I see. The family resemblance is strong in that one.”
Leo did a double take at Mortimer. He did not think that he and Tessa looked all that much alike, but clearly, he was rather biased. He wondered if they had looked more similar before her accident, but there was no way to find out now.
“Given our current travel companion and our mission of the night, I think that this would be a perfect job for my dear friend!” Aurelius advised. Leo decided not to further question his grandfather’s whimsical and unexplainable methods for knowing far too many things that he logically should not know.
“Friend? We have already lost hours and we do not yet know where to begin searching,” Leo exclaimed.
“Yes, yes – he will help us with all of that.”
